


Four Times

by cinip



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Crushes, F/F, Fluff, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 15:53:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17665562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinip/pseuds/cinip
Summary: The four times Umi tried to ask Kotori out and the one time she succeeded.





	Four Times

“You can do this,” Umi whispered to herself. After realizing she’d had a crush on Kotori for a while, Umi decided that she needed to act upon it and tell Kotori herself. It had been easier to just keep on with the two of them as friends, but over time Umi felt like her crush was getting stronger and stronger, until she finally made her decision to ask. Unfortunately for her, this was no easy task. 

Kotori was standing at her shoe locker, changing out her shoes. Fortunately Honoka was running late as always, so she didn’t need to worry about getting interrupted. It was a perfect moment for her to just wait for Kotori to finish so she could ask her question. Umi rubbed her hands together behind her back as she approached Kotori. 

“Good morning, Umi!” said Kotori cheerfully. Umi smiled. Kotori always looked so blissful, with her rosy cheeks and genuine grin, the kind of look that always made her heart flutter. 

“Morning,” she said, leaning on the lockers next to her in a way that she had mistakenly assumed was cool. Luckily, she quickly realized how dorky she looked, and went back to standing upright. Hopefully Kotori hadn’t noticed. 

“Well, so, I kind of, uh-” the entire speach Umi had prepared beforehand just decided to disappear from her mind at that instant. Kotori looked at her, knitting her eyebrows together, as Umi waved her hands out in front of her, her heart beating faster and faster. She had practiced this! Why was she failing now?

“What I’m trying to say is, that, uh-” 

Before she could embarrass herself anymore, Umi quickly rushed out of the room and down the hallway. After deciding that she was far enough away, she leaned against the wall and brushed her bangs out of her face with the palms of her hand.  _ Why was this so much harder than I thought it was going to be? Kotori is my best friend, I shouldn’t be this nervous about it! _ She thought to herself. She sighed as she leaned more into the side of the wall. What would Kotori think about this? Would she connect the dots together herself? Umi couldn’t decide if she even wanted that. She would try again tomorrow.

* * *

 

“Hey, Kotori, can I talk to you after class?” asked Umi, clutching her hands behind her back as she shifted her weight from foot to foot, anxious to finally get her friend alone with her. Kotori’s eyes lit up as she put her books in her bag. 

“Sure,” she grinned. Umi felt a wave of relief wash over her. This wasn’t going to be so bad. She could do this, all she needed to do was stick to her plan.  _ Just tell her how you feel, and be honest with her, and everything will turn out fine _ , she thought to herself. As Kotori stood up from her desk, Umi felt her knees clacking together, but she grabbed at a bit of her skirt to try to hide it a bit. Kotori didn’t need to know how nervous she was. 

“Alright, let’s go,” said Umi, holding the door for Kotori as they exited out of the classroom.  _ Just breathe _ she reminded herself. As soon as they were standing in the hallway, Umi quickly looked around to see if there was anyone else nearby, and didn’t really see anyone. She took a deep breath in. 

“There’s been something I’ve wanted to talk to you for a while about but I haven’t really found a time to do it,” said Umi, realizing she was rambling. She squeezed her hands together, and then bit her lip. 

“Oh?”

“I’m not entirely sure how to put this, but we’ve been friends for many years and I really appreciate that.”

“Me too, you’re a great friend!” 

Umi blushed, and pushed some of the hair out of her face before realizing that she had been doing this nervously a few times during the conversation.  _ Stop rambling! You need to get to the point! _

“I feel like now is a perfect time to tell you how I feel about-”

It was at this moment that Umi felt a mixture of both nervousness and pure unadulterated frustration. About half of that frustration was aimed at herself for not getting to the point soon enough, and the other half was aimed at someone else entirely.

“Hey guys what’s up?” interrupted Honoka, seemingly spontaneously generating right next to them. Umi quickly shut her mouth and felt her cheeks heating up again. The pure look on Honoka’s face meant that she absolutely did not realize what was happening right now, which only made it more awkward for Umi to try to continue. 

“Oh, uh,” said Umi awkwardly. “We should probably head to practice.” Kotori gave her a confused look, but Umi was staring at the ground trying not to think about how hard she was blushing right then. There was a time and place for everything, but now seemed to not be it. 

* * *

 

It was an ingenious plan. If she didn’t have to talk to Kotori, there wouldn’t be a chance for her to get interrupted. Umi looked down at the little note she had written, and smiled to herself. Love notes were innocent enough, and knowing Kotori, she’d probably find it really cute. 

Umi’s cheeks pinkened as she thought of what Kotori’s surprised reaction would be. She’d probably also blush and cover her face with the note, and then get embarrassed if other people tried to read the note or take it from her. 

But as Umi walked up to Kotori to give her the note, she felt herself getting flustered at the thought of straight up handing it to her.  _ This shouldn’t be this hard, we’re best friends, after all _ , she noted. But with each subsequent step, Umi felt more and more as if it were impossible for her to give away the letter. 

“Umi?” asked Kotori, turning around. Umi squeaked and stuck the letter behind her back. She gave Kotori an awkward smile and desperately hoped that she didn’t see the letter. Unfortunately, Kotori gave her a confused look. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course,” said Umi, impressively quick. “I’m just, uh, going to go to the bathroom real quick.” And with that, Umi nearly bolted out of the room. What had she been thinking? Ever since she got interrupted yesterday, her anxiety about asking Kotori out had skyrocketed. Something about coming so close but not doing it made her feel like there was some supernatural force in the universe keeping them apart. She clutched the letter in her hands and nearly bumped into Nozomi, who seemed to be waiting for her out there. 

“I’m so sorry-hey!” Umi pouted as Nozomi took the letter from her hands. Without reading it, Nozomi held it out to the side like one of her cards. Umi narrowed her eyes. This could go many different ways. 

“I think I know what you’re up to,” said Nozomi in her seemingly all knowing voice. Umi chewed her bottom lip. “Personally, love notes are cute, but I really don’t think it’s the best idea to confess to someone over one.”

“How so?” retorted Umi, a bit frustrated that Nozomi had criticized her method of confession. Nozomi put her other hand on her hip.

“You lose tone of voice, and seeing someone’s immediate reactions to your words as you speak them. And plus, impromptu confessions feel more genuine because they haven’t been edited a million times like this one probably has,” argued Nozomi. Umi crossed her arms. While she disagreed with Nozomi fundamentally, she did realize some of her points. It was probably more in character for her to ask straightforwardly instead of just writing a note. 

“Fine, I’ll try again,” said Umi, grabbing at the note. Nozomi held it over her head. Umi glared at her. 

“Can I read it first?”

“No!” Umi jumped up and snatched it out of her hands as Nozomi smirked at her. She would try again tomorrow. 

* * *

 

New plan: just talk to Kotori after practice! There were plenty of times where the two of them talked together afterwards in the past, it shouldn’t be that hard to find a time when Kotori was alone. As usual, this proved to be a false statement. 

First, she had forgotten to bring a water bottle. This would have been a good time for Umi to offer to share hers, and a good opportunity to get an indirect kiss, but Rin thought it would be a better idea to completely douse the two of them in water after failing to do the famed “waterfalling” technique. Before Umi could offer her a towel from her bag, Eli decided to take care of that because she always brought extra towels to wipe sweat off. Time and time again, Umi tried to find the perfect time to talk to just Kotori, but time and time again, she couldn’t seem to get her by herself. She was either laughing and joking with the 1st years and Honoka, or talking to some of the 3rd years about what to expect for the next year. Umi gave her an awkward glance that was returned by another confused look.

At this point, Umi didn’t know what to expect anymore. She was feeling rather discouraged from her previous attempts to tell her how she felt, and felt like there was something just keeping them apart. It was as if the perfect moment was never going to show up. No matter how hard she planned for it, she couldn’t predict other people’s interactions with Kotori. 

True, Kotori had other friends other than Umi, so it was only natural that they’d want to talk to her, but it made everything so much more complicated that Umi felt herself wishing that she could just pull Kotori off to the side and confess to her right then and there. 

Wait. 

As they were walking onto the bus, Umi suddenly realized what she had to do. She watched as Kotori started to take the first step up, and she reached out, brushing her fingers against Kotori’s forearm. Kotori quickly spun around, her eyes wide with curiosity. 

“Hey, would you mind walking home with me today? Just the two of us?” asked Umi. 

“Oh would I! I love walking home, and-” Honoka stopped as soon as she saw Umi’s serious expression. “The three of us can do that tomorrow, if you want to.” Umi gave her a much earned wink, which Honoka replied to with the least discrete wink in the history of winks.  _ Thank you for getting my hint, Honoka, I’ll make sure to thank you later _ .

Kotori stepped off the bus and faced Umi. The sunset in the background illuminated the outsides of her hair with an orange glow, which was blowing in the wind as the bus took off from its stop. Umi looked Kotori right in the eyes. She needed to do this confidently. 

“I like you.”

“I like you too, Umi.”

“No, I mean, in a crush way. I like you as a friend, too, but I also like you like this, and I just thought you should know my feelings towards you,” she said, clutching her skirt tightly. A feeling of relief washed over her face as Kotori’s mouth turned up in a smile. She reached out and grabbed one of Umi’s hands. 

“I meant in a crush way too,” said Kotori, her cheeks getting pink as she brushed the side of her face with the back of Umi’s hands. She felt a shiver of glee go up her back as she admired how cute Kotori looked right then. “I’m really glad you told me, because I was too nervous to do it.”

“Me too, I tried to tell you a few other times but I kept either getting too overwhelmed or there were too many other people around,” said Umi. “But those are just excuses, and it doesn’t really matter now.” The two of them grinned at each other and started to walk along the path, hand in hand. 

Umi felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She had finally done it, and best of all Kotori had felt the same way! There really hadn’t been anything keeping them apart, but in a sense, Umi realized perhaps the reason she couldn’t get a perfect moment to confess before was because she hadn’t created the moment herself. Nevertheless, she was proud of herself, and very much excited for what the future had in store for her and her new girlfriend. 


End file.
